"Then what else are these Contribution Points actually good for?" Su Jin pressed, refusing to let the issue drop.
"Beyond establishing a stable World Bridge, they function as your emergency exfiltration budget. If a mission enters a failure state, you can burn fifty thousand points to instantly teleport back to this office," the Steward explained calmly. "The remaining balance is used exclusively to purchase the inherited treasures left behind by the previous Sinders."
"Hold on. You're telling me I have to grind for my own salary just to buy back my own inheritance?" Su Jin stared at him, finding the corporate logic utterly incomprehensible.
"The First and Second Generation Sinders are deceased. By corporate policy, their assets default back to the Company."
"You just said I inherited this place!"
"You did inherit the access. What I mean is, you are the only entity with the security clearance required to purchase these items... Furthermore, there are certain sectors you inherited outright."
"Are you screwing with me? Inherited what? A mop and a bucket?"
The Steward offered a placating gesture. "There is no need for pessimism. Merely possessing the clearance to establish a World Bridge is an apocalyptic-tier advantage. Every dimension you complete will become a logistical fallback point. Your operational friction will decrease exponentially over time. And I have not yet finished."
"Fine!" The prospect of building an inter-dimensional supply chain sparked a sliver of interest. "Let's hear the rest of the benefits."
The Steward slowly raised his eyes, a profound, almost predatory smile playing on his lips. "Everything. Absolutely everything you could ever require exists within the Sinder's vaults."
"Whether your operational requirements demand Cultivation methods, arcane magic, genetic Abilities, or hyper-advanced tech, every conceptual path to ascension is archived within this building. The corresponding resource pipelines are functionally infinite!"
"Wow. I don't suppose you have a cheat 'System' lying around for me, do you?" Su Jin drawled, throwing out the sarcastic webnovel trope as a joke.
"A System?" The Steward arched an eyebrow. He raised a hand and casually gestured toward the massive star chart.
The entire wall violently snapped backward. The spatial geometry of the office warped.
A sprawling, sterile corridor materialized, heavy steel doors phasing into existence along the walls in an endless line.
Su Jin's sarcastic smirk vanished. He numbly pushed himself out of his chair, trailing behind the Steward who was already walking down the hall.
Stopping at the first vault, the Steward pulled the heavy door open and glanced over his shoulder with a polite smile. "Brace yourself. And please, manage your expectations."
Beyond the threshold lay a blindingly white, frictionless void. Thousands of iridescent spheres drifted through the air, pulsing with unnatural light.
Stepping into the void, Su Jin stared at the surreal anomaly. "What the hell is this?"
"The Systems you requested." The Steward casually plucked one of the glowing spheres from the air. "Every node here is an autonomous AI construct you would label a 'System'. Each one is hardwired into a colossal dimensional resource library. They possess the processing power to forcefully uplift a mortal into a planetary threat in a matter of weeks."
The Steward began plucking bubbles and pressing them into Su Jin's hands. "This one triggers bio-enhancements when the host checks in at specific geographical coordinates. This one farms passive experience points while the host is asleep. This one extracts cultivation power by copulating with women..."
The instant the spheres touched his skin, the terrifying, god-like data streams encoded within violently crashed into Su Jin's consciousness.
Su Jin's breathing hitched. The muscles in his jaw twitched completely out of his control.
"Are you kidding me... if you had this kind of hardware, why didn't you lead with it?! Why the hell am I even stressing?"
"Regrettably, your access is denied. In fact, the Company strictly prohibits any internal personnel from binding with these constructs." The Steward coughed lightly, ruthlessly executing Su Jin's power fantasy.
A hollow ache settled in Su Jin's chest. "Let me get this straight. I have to grind currency to unlock my inheritance, and I'm legally barred from actually equipping the top-tier gear?"
"These constructs are not the Sinder's personal loot. Historically, during the Company's initial aggressive expansion phase, HQ mass-produced these tools and scatter-dropped them across the multiverse to passively farm recruits. Unfortunately, the assets cultivated through these algorithmic shortcuts proved to be completely incompetent. They became a massive operational liability."
"The Company burned a galaxy's worth of resources to forge an apex Cultivator, only for him to infiltrate a mortal university, feign mental retardation, and systematically manipulate college girls into sleeping with him."
"Another was granted a mind-reading System. He utilized it exclusively to eavesdrop on female targets, resulting in severe psychological deviancy and clinical impotence."
"Even the hosts who genuinely pursued Cultivation eventually suffered catastrophic ego-death. Without exception, they devolved into narcissistic tyrants. The collateral damage and massacres they orchestrated were incalculable."
"The PR nightmares were endless. It is rumored that the Board Executives who initially pitched the System project nearly suffered aneurysms from sheer rage. They mass-recalled every unit and sealed them in this vault." The Steward sighed wearily. "While you cannot bind them to your own soul, you can requisition them to bind to your target clients. Furthermore, you retain supreme administrative oversight over the software. You can literally roleplay as the 'System' to micromanage your clients."
"You can also utilize the host client as a proxy to launder the Supplies directly into your own inventory. It is simply a bureaucratic loophole. The Company intentionally left this backdoor open in the code; otherwise, they would not have stored the vault under your jurisdiction."
"Hiss... alright, that tracks. So it isn't a total wash!" Su Jin's eyes lit up with predatory corporate greed.
"Walk with me." The Steward turned and exited the vault, Su Jin hot on his heels.
They crossed the corridor and breached the opposite door. Inside lay a cavernous, pitch-black void, illuminated only by countless floating motes of starlight.
The Steward casually pinched a glowing mote from the darkness and passed it to Su Jin. "Each spark here represents an apex entity that was corrupted by chaos and engaged the Company in hostile combat. They were beyond saving. Ultimately, the Company surgically extracted their souls, wiped their egos, and preserved their core knowledge. After extensive memory reprogramming, they were reformatted into sentient Cultivation manuals."
"So, basically the 'Grandpa in a Ring' trope?"
"Precisely. But much like the Systems, you are strictly prohibited from internalizing them." Seeing Su Jin open his mouth to complain, the Steward cut him off. "The Company decommissioned these sentient aids because they artificially insulated the host. They provided too much certainty. True apex predators are forged in the crucible of absolute uncertainty and lethal risk."
"Therefore, the Company only sanctions organic growth through brutal, unscripted survival. Hand-holding is entirely obsolete. However, identical to the Systems, you possess administrative override. You can deploy these souls and act as their handler to manipulate your clients."
"As for actually studying the Cultivation methods locked inside them, you don't need to bother. Let me show you the—"
DONG— A heavy, resonant toll violently echoed through the office architecture, cutting the Steward off.
"A deployment mandate?" The Steward snapped his head toward Su Jin.
[You will be transported to a Dying World in two hours. Please immediately establish contact with the client and ensure their survival through the initial apocalyptic outbreak.]
Reading the criminally brief text scrolling across his retina, Su Jin scowled. A digital timer was ticking down in his peripheral vision. "I'm officially on the payroll, and the mission briefing is even more bare-bones than the unpaid internship? Zero intel. And what does this '180' counter mean?"
"Corporate briefings are notoriously sparse. Field interrogation of the client is standard operating procedure. That counter is the exact timeline until the Calamity triggers. You have exactly one hundred and eighty days of prep time. If the system is allocating a six-month buffer, the impending disaster is going to be extremely severe." The Steward was already power-walking toward the lobby.
"Where the hell are you going?!" Su Jin barked.
"We are on a two-hour clock! The only sector of the Sinder's inheritance that lacks a paywall is the scrapyard! I need to cannibalize that salvage to retrofit your RV immediately. The Dying World you are deploying to likely lacks a petrochemical infrastructure or paved roads. Without structural modifications, your vehicle is dead weight!"
"These vaults are highly volatile! Do not touch anything without authorization! The Company should be dispensing your onboarding Reward momentarily. Review your gear while I work!"
The Steward's voice faded as he bolted down the corridor, vanishing from sight.
A heavy hydraulic groan echoed through the main office. The massive bronze Guiheng Platform slowly sank back into the floorboards.
A sudden, searing heat spiked behind Su Jin's eyes. He grunted, violently burying his face in his hands until the burning sensation passed.
A moment later, his vision cleared. He looked up. Three sleek display pedestals had risen from the exact spot where the temporal platform had vanished.
The first pedestal displayed a long, narrow blade. It was forged from pure, gleaming silver, resting horizontally on a velvet mount.
The second pedestal held a single, unadorned ring.
The third pedestal held a heavily folded tactical cloak.
Su Jin's eyes locked onto the weapon. He closed the distance in three strides and firmly wrapped his hand around the silver hilt.
The second his skin made contact, a strange, electric synesthesia flooded his nervous system.
The steel violently hummed in his palm. Like a living metallic organism, the blade fractured and rapidly inverted. The sharp edges dissolved, folding inward to construct a heavy barrel and a slide.
Su Jin pivoted sharply. In the span of a single breath, the longsword had transmuted into a massive, chrome-silver handgun. He raised the iron sights, aiming directly down the empty corridor.
"Hah... now that's a goddamn weapon."
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